Meetings of other societies

摘要

This anniversary meeting took place in Xinjiang Province in Northwest China and began fittingly in its capital, Urumqi, at the foot of the Tien Shan. When the late Shi Yafeng led the first glaciological expeditions to the source area of the Urumqi River in the 1950s, it was with tremendous foresight that he and his colleagues decided to set up a station there for long-term glacier monitoring. Tien Shan Glaciological Station, established in 1959, has been a focal point of Chinese glaciological research since its beginning. An hour's walk from its upper station (3545 m a.s.l.) is Urumqi Glacier No. 1, one of very few glaciers in the world with continuous mass-balance record over five decades. Research findings from this glacier and its environment have contributed in a sustained way to the fields of glacier physics, meteorology, hydrology and geomorphology, and to our knowledge of the ecosystems and glacial history of the Tien Shan. Today, the station continues to serve as a platform for international collaboration and a model for station-based monitoring efforts in China and other countries.